Barking At Ball

by John
(Wilkeson, Wa.)

Several times a day I go out in the yard to play 'herd the ball' with my Aussie. She has two that she loves... one a jolly ball and the other is a hard plastic about size of a basketball. The hard one is her favorite and she will herd it around and end up bringing it to my feet for us to tussle over.

After a bit of time the ball will end somewhere and she will go over and bark at it. And bark, and bark, and bark. The ball isn't stuck. It might be 6 inches in front of her face. Cute at first but gets annoying and the neighbors haven't complained but can't be something they want to hear all the time.

I've tried the "no" commands, encouraging her to "get it" etc, without success.

The last thing I've tried is taking it away and she will always look where I put it but will then play with her jolly ball which she does not bark at... maybe because she can pick it up and carry it around, which she can't do with the other ball.

Any suggestions to stop the barking behavior? Enclosed picture of her with ball while she is barking at it.

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